The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced Tuesday it is offering eligible faculty and staff a voluntary retirement buyout with a one-time payment equal to 50% of an employee's annual base salary.

UW-Oshkosh becomes the third campus within the UW System to offer buyouts in an effort to reduce its workforce in the face of state budget cuts. UW-Eau Claire was the first, followed last week by UW-Superior.

UW-Oshkosh expects about 100 employees would be eligible. It has set a goal of reducing its workforce by 80 within the next three years.(89)

News and Opinion Blogs

Johnson company history made earlier

U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson may have called for a rewrite of his company's history a week earlier than previously supposed.

No Quarter said the history on Pacur's website was altered last week, bringing it in line with Johnson's campaign statements about its founding. The column used a cached version of the site from Google and the Wayback Machine on archive.org.

The Oshkosh businessman, who is expected to win the Sept. 14 Republican primary, owns Pacur, a plastics factory based in his hometown.

But a reader points out that someone posted a tweet about the edits to the company history on Aug. 19.

That would suggest the changes were made around the time Johnson was interviewed by WKOW-TV - something that took place on Aug. 17 - but before the Madison station ran its story on a $75,000 federal grant that was given to the firm to pay for a rail spur to Pacur's predecessor company in March 1979.

Johnson maintains that Pacur came into existence after he moved to Wisconsin later in 1979.

For nine years, the company history said the company was founded in 1977. Its predecessor company was incorporated by Johnson's brother-in-law.

A company employee suggested earlier this week that the modification in the website was ordered by the campaign, but a Johnson spokeswoman denies it. Johnson's brother said the change was the result of media inquiries.

About Daniel Bice

Daniel Bice is a Watchdog columnist covering Wisconsin government and politics. His “No Quarter” column has won a National Headliner Award for best local interest column.